Weekly Log 5 (Feb 28-March 6)

This week, we continued testing our inverter and battery controller. Because of last week’s accident with the spark and burnt battery cable, we had to replace our wire terminals and clamp. While the short circuit did set us back and force us to spend some money on replacements, it did teach us a valuable lesson on safety. We will be sure to write in our safety manual how crucial wiring tape is and ensuring that polarities do not touch. We havea also been preparing for our demonstration on March, 6. We will be proving that our battery controller works as it should and that our 2 main sources (PV panel & Wind trubine) charge our battery.

Our DC load chargers should be coming in sometime this week and we will be able to finally test that our battery is properly charging our DC loads. For our project, it is crucial that we take high quality video footage to prove that our PV panel because the sun can be spotty on cloudy days and we need to be able to record proof that the PV panel accurately charges the battery.

For the remainder of the week before spring break we will be deciding on which inverter we will be using for our project. We will also be working on our Final Paper Draft #1 that is due before we go on break.